Honorable Andrew Young, legendary civil rights leader, politician, diplomat, activist and pastor
A close friend and colleague of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Young served as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and as a major strategist of the civil rights campaigns in Birmingham, Selma, St. Augustine and Atlanta. He was elected to Congress in 1970 and later served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as Mayor of Atlanta, and as President of the National Council of Churches. He has worked extensively to promote human rights and economic development around the world, with a special focus on Africa. Ambassador Young is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, France’s Légion d’Honneur, and the NAACP Springarn Medal.

Constance Curry ’55, a champion of racial and social justice and the sole Agnes Scott graduate to be profiled at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate and Fulbright Scholar, Curry was the first white woman appointed to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC) executive board. She worked from 1964 to 1975 as a field representative for the American Friends Services Committee helping in the desegregation and voter registration efforts in Mississippi and served from 1975 to 1990 as Atlanta's Director of Human Services. Curry is also an author and documentarian. Her book Silver Rights (1995), about a Mississippi sharecropper family who sent seven of their thirteen children to desegregate an all-white school system, won the Lillian Smith Book Award and was named the Outstanding Book on the subject of Human Rights in North America by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights. Her other books include Mississippi Harmony (2002), Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement (2000) and Aaron Henry: the Fire Ever Burning (2000). She produced "The Intolerable Burden," a 2004 documentary which won the John O'Connor film award from the American Historical Association. Ms. Curry continues her civil rights work and has recently published critiques of school resegregation and of the fast track to prison for youth of color.

2015 Baccalaureate SpeakerReverend Dr. Margaret Aymer, Associate Professor of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. Originally from Barbados, Dr. Aymer is an innovative scholar of the New Testament and a major international voice in the church and the academy. She is the author of three books: First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass, Darkness and the Epistle of James (2007), Confessing the Beatitudes (2011) and James: Diaspora Rhetorics of a Friend of God (2014). Her fourth book, Islanders, Islands and the Bible, will be published this year.

Dr. Aymer has played many leadership roles within the church, serving on the General Assembly Task Force on Civil Unions and Marriage and on the steering committee for the Committee on Theological Education Consultation on Racism. She also represented the Presbyterian Church (USA) at the World Alliance for Reformed Churches Feminist Discourse on Economy, Ecology and Empire in Bangalore, India in 2008.

Commencement Location

The commencement ceremony will be held in the college’s traditional location on the Presser Quad, the area bounded by Presser, Buttrick and Campbell. A canopy will be placed over the platform—the brick courtyard between Presser and Buttrick. While we all hope and expect lovely weather, the outdoor ceremony will proceed in light rain or drizzle. We encourage graduates and guests to bring umbrellas in case of light rain. No tickets are needed for the outdoor ceremony.

In the event of severe weather conditions, the ceremony may be moved into Gaines Chapel. The decision to move to Gaines will be made by 6 a.m. on the day of the ceremony and announced by email. In the event that the ceremony is moved indoors, tickets will be required for entrance. Please note: Tickets are needed only in the event of severe weather.

Rain Ticket Information

Tickets will only be given to students who complete the Senior Survey.